Yet another tropical storm could be born in the Gulf today.
The National Hurricane Center on Friday continued to track Tropical Depression 22 in the southwestern Gulf, which is forecast to strengthen and become Tropical Storm Wilfred sometime today.
Wilfred is the last name on the 2020 storm list for the Atlantic, by the way. Any future storms will get names from the Greek alphabet. That has only happened once before, in 2005.
The potential Wilfred could also become a hurricane over the weekend.
Hurricane-weary residents on the northern Gulf Coast just want to know where Tropical Depression 22 is going to go, and unfortunately forecasters can’t answer that question just yet.
“The most certain aspect of the forecast is that the depression will not be moving anywhere very quickly well into next week,” hurricane center forecasters said Friday morning.
Here’s what they know so far:
As of 4 a.m. CDT Friday, Tropical Depression 22 was located about 285 miles southeast of the mouth of the Rio Grande River and was moving north-northeast at 6 mph.
The depression had winds of 35 mph. It needs winds of at least 39 mph to become a tropical storm, and the hurricane center expects that to happen later today. It could continue to strengthen over that relatively untapped part of the Gulf and be near or at hurricane strength by Sunday.
This storm, like Sally, is also going to be affected by the lack of steering currents, so it’s not going anywhere fast.
The hurricane center expects the depression to track to the north-northeast today and into Saturday and then possibly turn westward — toward the Texas coast — by late Saturday.
The official hurricane center forecast shows the potential Wilfred just off the Texas coast by Tuesday — but as a tropical storm, not a hurricane.
“Confidence in the details of the track forecast remain low at this time. Due to the slow forward speed of the cyclone expected into next week, small fluctuations in the depression’s heading or speed could have very large implications on any hazards experienced along the Mexico or Texas coasts,” the hurricane center said Friday morning.
“It is critical that users not focus on the exact forecast track, especially at days 4 and 5 when the average NHC forecast error is about 175 and 200 miles, respectively.”
ELSEWHERE IN THE ATLANTIC
The hurricane center is also tracking powerful Hurricane Teddy in the Atlantic, which is going to make another run at Bermuda soon.
Teddy was a Category 4 hurricane with 130 mph winds on Friday morning, and it is on a path that will take it near Bermuda, which was just hit by Hurricane Paulette on Monday.
Teddy was a Category 4 hurricane with 130 mph winds as of Friday morning.
As of 4 a.m. CDT, Teddy was about 935 miles southeast of Bermuda and was moving northwest at 12 mph.
Teddy is forecast to pass very near or over Bermuda as a major hurricane by late Sunday or early Monday morning. Bermuda is still cleaning up from Hurricane Paulette, which struck the island head-on on Monday with 90 mph winds.
After passing Bermuda Teddy could then head toward Canada, reaching Nova Scotia on Wednesday as an extratropical system with hurricane-force winds.
The hurricane center is also tracking four other tropical waves.
The Atlantic continues to be busy with Hurricane Teddy, Tropical Depression 22 and four other tropical waves.
All of them except one have low chances of development and are far from the United States.
The exception is a wave southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands in the eastern Atlantic. It could become a tropical depression soon and head westward.
It’s too soon to say if it could affect the U.S.
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